APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – A popular downtown Appleton music festival is back for its fifth year.
Mile of Music runs from Thursday through Sunday, with roughly 70 venues hosting a total of 900+ live music sets.
Event Spokesman Cameron Wengrzyn says the shows will be in a variety of settings.
“Everything from the bars and coffee shops on College Avenue to some of the parks that are either on College Avenue or right off of College Avenue, and then we even stretch down to the riverfront.”
Wengrzyn explains how the 230 artists, who come from 28 states and three countries, are selected.
“Basically, we do a lot of reach-outs through recommendations from our past artists. Then throughout the year, we get suggestions from a lot of people that are right in the thick of things with the original music scene in Appleton.”
Wengrzyn says 130 of this year’s artists have played at least one of the four previous Mile of Music events.
He explains the multiple goals organizers had in mind when the festival was created.
“As a way of driving traffic to downtown Appleton, specifically to inside the venues. The second goal was to bring original music to the Fox Cities.”
Wengrzyn says the economic impact for a Mile of Music weekend is $2,500,000-$3,000,000, which he says includes both business for the downtown venues and money that is donated to the Mile of Music Education Fund, which provides musical opportunities within Appleton’s public schools.
City Communications Coordinator Chad Doran believes Mile of Music has brought the city plenty of benefits since its 2013 inception.
“This event has really put Appleton on the map in terms of being a great place for local music. Thousands of people come here to visit. They come here to stay and they shop and they visit kind of throughout the community.”
Wengrzyn expects 65,000-70,000 attendees this year, after recording roughly 50,000 in 2016.
Click here to learn more about the festival and about volunteer opportunities.
